Well Done My Son

A Series on Living by Faith
(Use the link below to read the verses.)
Genesis 26:1-25; Hebrews 11:20

 [Hebrews 11 is a recounting of the Heroes of the Faith. Even though they never saw what they had been promised, each person is commended for living “by faith”. At the end of these commendations, Hebrews 12 tells us, “Therefore, because you are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses… throw off sin; run with perseverance; fix your eyes on Jesus”. In other words, live “by faith”.]

  

Sibling rivalry. If you grew up in a family with more than one child, you may be intimately familiar with what this phrase means. In fact, you may have experienced it for much of your childhood, and maybe even as an adult.

 

My oldest sister and brother had a fierce sibling rivalry. Although I wasn’t born yet, they tell stories of how they competed with each other. The one that sticks in my mind the most took place while riding in the car when Susan would say, “Dwight’s looking at me”! They knew exactly how to push each other’s buttons.

 

Isaac may be best known for the sibling rivalry of his twin sons, Jacob and Esau. Their rivalry started while they were still in the womb of their mother Rebekah, and continued throughout their adult years. It culminated in Jacob stealing, not only Esau’s birthright, but his blessing too. Out of this family mess, Isaac is mentioned in Hebrews 11 as a Hero of the Faith. But why?

 

When a famine came, the Lord told Isaac to not flee to Egypt, but to stay. Isaac obeyed, and it was during this difficult time that the Lord confirmed Abraham’s covenant with him.

 

³ Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. ⁴ I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed…       NIV

 

Because of Isaac’s faithfulness, his crops grew a hundredfold; and he had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. In fact, he became so wealthy and powerful, that the king of the Philistines asked him to leave.

 

It was another setback that Isaac had to face. Even more difficult was finding water. His Father Abraham had previously dug wells in the area, but the herdsmen had filled them with dirt. Then when Isaac’s servants would dig and find a new well, the herdsmen would claim the water was theirs. Finally though, he found a well that he could call his own, and made his home there.

 

Clearly Isaac wasn’t a perfect person. He had faced adversity throughout his life. From the time his father was about to sacrifice him; to living in the land of the Philistines homeless; to dealing with a son who lied to his face to steal his blessing. And yet, he is recognized as living “by faith”.

 

I find great hope in Isaac. Hope that someone like me who is far from perfect; who has dealt with adversity; who has struggled to live faithfully… will someday find the love and affirmation of his Heavenly Father when he says, “Well done my son. Well done”.

 

 

 

Waiting

 A Series on Living by Faith
(Use the link below to read the verses.)
Genesis 17:15-19; Genesis 18:10-14; Hebrews 11:11-13

 [Hebrews 11 is a recounting of the Heroes of the Faith. Even though they never saw what they had been promised, each person is commended for living “by faith”. At the end of these commendations, Hebrews 12 tells us, “Therefore, because you are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses… throw off sin; run with perseverance; fix your eyes on Jesus”. In other words, live “by faith”.]

  

It feels like I spend a lot of my time waiting. I wait for my computer to respond. I wait on hold to be transferred while the voice tells me, “due to the pandemic, wait times are longer than normal”. I wait in line at the grocery store; at the McDonalds drive through; at the traffic light. Nothing seems to happen when I want it to happen… so I wait.

 

Waiting! We don’t like it, but it’s a part of everyday life. We get impatient and we want to take control. We want to make things happen. We want to be in charge.

 

Despite the Lord’s promise for descendants to fill the Promised Land, Abraham and Sarah didn’t have any children for decades. Like most of us who don’t get what we want when we want it, they decided to take things into their own hands by having a child with their servant Hagar. Bad idea!

 

As a result, Abraham and Sarah grew tired of waiting for the Lord. So much so that that they laughed at the Lord’s promise of a son.

 

¹⁶ I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

¹⁷ Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”  Genesis 17 NIV

 

¹⁰ Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

¹² So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”                Genesis 18 NIV

 

And yet, in Hebrews we read that Sarah gave birth to Isaac, “by faith”.

 

¹¹ And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.            NIV

 

So if you ever find yourself in a situation where you are tired of waiting… then remember Sarah. Remember too that the Lord is faithful, and then… wait some more!

Why? Because sometimes living by faith means waiting by faith.

 

¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.   Hebrews 11 NIV

 

Here are a couple of other cute pictures that I found that I just had to add.

 

The Eleventh Hour

 

A Series on Living by Faith
(Use the link below to read the verses.)
Genesis 22:1-19; Hebrews 11:17-19

 [Hebrews 11 is a recounting of the Heroes of the Faith. Even though they never saw what they had been promised, each person is commended for living “by faith”. At the end of these commendations, Hebrews 12 tells us, “Therefore, because you are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses… throw off sin; run with perseverance; fix your eyes on Jesus”. In other words, live “by faith”.]

  

Life is full of tests. The important question about tests though, is not whether you pass or fail, but how do you handle them.

 

My wife taught school for twenty-three years, and we always depended on her job for our health insurance. When she decided to retire though, there was a deadline of September 30 when the health insurance would run out.

 

She spent the whole summer looking for a job without success. Finally, at the eleventh hour, when panic was beginning to set in, she got a job that would start on October 1. And, unlike most jobs, the health insurance kicked in immediately.

 

Abraham had a lifetime of tests, to many of which, he did not respond well. But, there seemed to be no end to God’s faithfulness as time and again He would reiterate the promise of descendants. However, most of us will never face the final test that Abraham did.

 

² Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”            NIV

 

On that mountain, Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son. He stacked the wood, bound Isaac on top of it, took the knife in his hand and raised it to kill him.  It was literally at the eleventh hour when the Lord provided another sacrifice.

 

¹³ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”         NIV

 

Besides health insurance, the Lord has provided a wife and daughter who have stood beside me during my darkest hours; a church family who supported us when we had our still born; financial support for my twenty-five year career in faith ministry; a retirement portfolio when I never had a 401-k.

 

What is your mountain? Tests, trials, adversity… we all have them. It’s a part of living. But the Lord will provide even when you are in the middle of a seemingly hopeless situation. And like Abraham, we are to live by faith, and trust in the faithfulness of the Lord and His promises.

 

Too Good to be True

A Series on Living by Faith
(Use the link below to read the verses.)

Genesis 12:1-9; Hebrews 11:8-10 

[Hebrews 11 is a recounting of the Heroes of the Faith. Even though they never saw what they had been promised, each person is commended for living “by faith”. At the end of these commendations, Hebrews 12 tells us, “Therefore, because you are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses… throw off sin; run with perseverance; fix your eyes on Jesus”. In other words, live “by faith”.]

  

My Dad used to say, “If something sounds too good to be true… it probably is”. Turns out, he was a pretty smart man. My wife and I enjoy traveling, and in the past we’ve been a sucker for a sales pitch involving travel.

 

During a vacation to Mexico, we were promised a $200 voucher for a day trip of our choice. All we had to do was sit through a “brief presentation” at a new resort. We were told the whole thing would take only two hours; no pressure. Four hours later, with a knot in my stomach, they finally relented to our repeated answer of “NO”!

 

We’re not the only ones who are a sucker for a promise. It turns out that Abram was susceptible to a promise of something that sounded too good to be true. All he had to do was move to Canaan.

 

The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's home, and go to a land that I am going to show you. ² I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.        NLT

 

Funny how the Lord didn’t mention the people who already lived there; who would need to be displaced in order to inherit the land. Nor did the Lord mention the impending famine; Abram’s conflict with Lot; having a child with his servant and the resulting family strife; and, when Abram finally did have a son of his own, the request to sacrifice him. Yes, it sounded too good to be true.

 

When I think back on my own life to when I made my decision to follow the Lord… there were promises. However, with them, the Lord didn’t tell me that living by faith would include struggles and sacrifice; pain and suffering. He didn’t tell me about our still born baby, or the multiple miscarriages; or pulling us out by the roots from a lifetime in Michigan to move to Ohio.

 

As believers in the Living God, we live by faith in His promises, and based on who He is; His character. You don’t need to know everything that lies ahead. You don’t need to know about the pain and suffering that the future holds. You don’t need to know about the temptations and trials that are around the corner.

 

 Let us live like Abraham did. Let us live by faith in what we do not see.

 

⁸ It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. ⁹ And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. ¹⁰ Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God. NLT